Qasigiannguit Tourist-Service
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The prehistory of the district

Colonial buildings in Qasigiannguit. Today housing the museum.


At the outset of the colonial period, there were no Inuit settlement in Qasigiannuit itself, but in the vicinity there were plenty of dwelling sites. Today the remains of sod winter houses can be seen at the island Savik, a few kilometers west of the town, at Nuuk south of the town, as well as at several other locations in Sydostbugt. Many prehistoric settlements has been located through several years of archaeological survey work. Large scale excavations has been conducted at the 4500 years old stone age site at the island Qeqertasussuk approximately 25 km. south of Qasigiannguit. At this site archaeologists found well preserved dwelling remains and a frozen midden holding a magnificently preserved inventory including numerous organic artifacts such as harpoon heads, wooden spoons,hafted knives and clothing as well as thousands of bones from the game.

Another archaeological site is the nearby site Orpissooq in the bottom of the Orpissooq fjord. At this location no midden layers was preserved, but the site revealed well preserved hearths with boiling stones illustrating the life on a stone age summer camp. The hearts are left in sits where they can be seen by visitors.

The excavations has elucidated the lives of the first Westgreenlanders, and palaeo-zoological and botanical research has shed light on the effect of climatic change and occilations in game populations.


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